Memorial Hermann: Patients Have a Big Appetite for Online Appointment Scheduling

By Stewart Gandolf, Chief Executive Officer

Tracy Borkowski
Memorial Hermann Health System

[SHSMD14 Speaker Podcast Series] Tracy Borkowski, Director of Business Unit Marketing for Memorial Hermann Health System talks with Healthcare Success’ Kylie Ladd regarding the 2014 SHSMD Connections presentation: Attracting the Digital Healthcare Consumer: Innovations in Real-Time Online Appointment Scheduling.

"There's a big appetite by consumers for online scheduling," Tracy Borkowski said, and Memorial Hermann Health System (Houston) can point to their own success and remarkable growth in the past three years. “We currently have over 600 doctors using online scheduling, plus 20-plus imaging centers, 10 PT clinics and several other locations in our system,” she told Kylie Ladd.

Memorial Hermann Health System currently gets about 4.1 million unique visitors per year to their website. “When people are searching for healthcare and researching online, it’s important for us to be front and center with the opportunity for them to complete their transaction, meaning having the ability to make an appointment online without having to pickup the phone after the fact.”

“When we first started with online scheduling we had about 50 doctors using it,” Tracy said. “And now, three years later, we have over 600 using it.

Going forward at Memorial Hermann…

“We definitely see continuing to integrate online scheduling with Memorial Hermann internal processes. [For example,] in post-discharge, we presently use it a little bit now, but we hope to leverage it across our entire system. So when people are checking out of the hospital, it’s important for them to have a confirmed appointment at the time of discharge. [We feel] the patient compliance will be a lot higher, versus having them schedule on their own."

This article and podcast are part of Healthcare Success’ continuing education series featuring speakers at the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development, SHSMD CONNECTIONS 2014 conference in San Diego.

TO HEAR MORE: additional podcasts in this series and previous Healthcare Success marketing leadership conversations are available on this page and on our iTunes Podcast channel.

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Kylie Ladd— Kylie manages the social media presence for several clients, constantly finding new ways to engage with community members and looking out for emerging trends. She has worked for several media companies including NBC Nightly News, Warner Music Group, and Gorkana Group. Kylie graduated from Fordham University with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and New Media.